Month: May 2017

This week’s mixtape starts out with a killer new song by U.K. punk rocker Louise Distras! Up next is a punk band I was lucky enough to catch live that opened for Biters this week in Toledo called Frankie + The Studs from L.A. To end the show is a wild video by a garage rock band from Argentina called Kill West! Till next week rockers! Thanks for following and watching!

Louise Distras is making a lot of people around the world sit up and take notice of the songwriter being described as “the 21st century Joe Strummer who personifies punk rock spirit and renegade soul”. The twelve tracks of Dreams From The Factory Floor really show her ability to channel her passion into some damn fine songwriting. Having seen her live, I can tell you that the songs and her tendency to wield her guitar like a deadly weapon, makes you want to pay attention to what she’s saying. Because she has something to say, and it’s worth listening to.

Frankie & the Studs are a retro 70s glam rock band, fronted by 21-year old Frankie Clarke, daughter of Gilby Clarke (Guns ’n’ Roses, Kill for Thrills, Candy). With her leather jumpsuit and glitter Kohl eyes, Frankie at first glance brings to mind Suzi Quatro and the Runaways, and if you keep listening, you will hear Ramones and Bowie influences as well. Frankie’s songs are the kind of fist pumping glam rock that get the audience on their feet cheering, and their cover of Nick Gilder’s 1978 hit, “Hot Child in the City” shows they have listened to all the right records. Much like her dad, Frankie is a naturally charismatic performer, all attitude and stage presence. And not surprisingly considering her lineage, she shreds on guitar. The rest of the Studs consist of Ronnie Simmons on guitar, Johnny Martin on bass, and Matt Lucich on drums, all skilled players with incredible presence. This band is as fun to watch as they are to hear.

Kill West is a 5-piece rock outfit hailing from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Formed in bandleader Franco Beceiro’s garage in late 2012, the band consists of Beceiro on vocals and guitar, Joel Menazzi on bass, Martin Valentini on guitar, and brothers Nicolas and Mario Miele on drums and keys. “Kill West drives right into the black hole of reverb, thick guitars, wah-wah pedals and draggy tempos that you might associate with 30 years ago, the time of the Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine.” – The New York Times

This week’s mixtape kicks off with a new song called Fight! by Norwegian garage rockers Death By Unga Bunga. Up next is wild and crazy punk band from Arizona called Playboy Manbaby with their song called Cheap Wine. To end this one is a fun song that channels the spirit of Marc Bolan called Television by Michael Parrett from the U.K.

If your band is named Death By Unga Bunga, I think we can pretty much assume we’re in for a fun ride, and that’s certainly what we get on the Norwegian rock band’s fourth LP Pineapple Pizza. Now I know what you’re thinking — fourth LP! I would have remembered a name like Death By Unga Bunga! That’s true; this is actually the band’s first album to see a North America release and us, North American scum, are all the better for it. Pineapple Pizza is a fine introduction to the band’s retro-rock loving style — a storm of garage rock, psychedelia, and power pop.

Even though Playboy Manbaby is a Phoenix super-group featuring some of the most musically talented Phoenicians the Valley of the Sun has to offer, they have always been more of a live band than one for the studio. But Don’t Let it Be will change all that. Don’t get me wrong: Playboy Manbaby will always be one of the most electrifying live bands in the country, but with the release of their new LP, they have a record that can stand up to their live performances.

Michael Parretthas influences flowing fast on the Michael Parrett train – from Marc Bolan, Ray Davies to bla bla bla – comparisons and name-drops become irrelevant once you realize you are also listening to something, and someone, who digs the journey they’re on. We’ve had the privilege of hearing 5 songs from the sessions so far and what a killer bunch of tunes they are.

To begin this week’s Wassup Rocker Radio Mixtape #6 is “My Backs Fucking Fucked” by Pizzatramp from South Wales. Up next is an Australian pop band named after the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off character Sloan Peterson with their song “105.” To end this week’s mixtape is female punk duo BOYTOY from Brooklyn, New York with their new track “Your Girl.” Thanks for watching! LIKE THIS! SHARE THIS! Pass this around like you used to in high school!

Pizzatramp are a hardcore punk trio from Wales who have, in the last year, become one of the most popular acts in the DIY punk scene in the United Kingdom after only forming in 2014. Towards the end of 2016, the punksreleased their third album, ‘Blowing Chunks’ through DIY punk label TNSRecords, which received rave reviews from press and punk fans alike, having been nominated as one of the best punk albums of 2016 by several critics in their top 10 lists.

Sloan Peterson, the new project from Sydney, Australia-based songwriter Joe Jackson, unveiled her debut single “105“. The track is the first single released from Sloan Peterson’s forthcoming self-titled debut EP, which will be out July 13th via Mirror Records.

BOYTOY is made up of Saara Untracht-Oakner (vocals/guitar), Glenn Van Dyke (guitar) and Matthew Gregory a.k.a. Matty Beans (drums). Formed after an impromptu 2 a.m. jam session by Untracht-Oakner and Van Dyke, they describe their band as “the love child of three dinguses from the same stardust.” Their distinct sound derives from double guitars and lack of bass.

Wassup Rockers!? This week’s Wassup Rocker Radio Mixtape #5 begins with Australian punk band Brad Pot‘s video for their song Waiting for the Airstrike. Up next is a new track by The Coathangers called Captains Dead. To end the show is a new song called All my best bands are has beens by fast pop punk band Clobber from the U.K.

BRAD POT who, like most of history’s best rockin’ outfits, don’t rely on politics to rip, but get straight to the fucking POINT of radical rock’n’roll.

The Coathangers are a punk rock band from Atlanta. The band formed in 2006 as a joke. After playing a house show, they were asked to open for The Hiss on the strength of their performance. The name “Coathangers” refers to a method of self-induced abortion and was chosen for its irreverent vulgarity; all of the band’s members are pro-choice.

Clobber is a fast paced three-piece punk band from Redditch, Worcestershire, UK who say that some of their most influential bands are Funbug, Pulley, Propagandhi, Jawbreaker, and Frenzal Rhomb. “Britun First” is an anti-nationalist anthem that takes on Britain’s far-right organization Britain First.

To start off this week’s mixtape is a brand spanking new track from Austin, TX band, Dream Machine, off their upcoming album called Illusion! Next is another brand new track from Lolipop Records by The Broken Hearts called Tomorrow Night! And to end this week’s mixtape is a new video all the way from down under in New Zealand by a band called The Cavemen! Thanks for listening, rockers! Till next week, keep on rockin’!

“When Matthew Melton told us he had two brand new records for us to hear, a final Warm Soda record as well as a new band with his wife Doris called Dream Machine, I must admit there was a little sadness that Warm Soda had run its course. Then I put on Dream Machine and poof, a puff of smoke and a familiar looking magician appears, beckoning for me to jump through his top hat and we’re off! The vibe makes a deft jump from Warm Soda’s terse power pop to tongue in groove swinging proto-metal a la Iron Butterfly, Deep Purple, Heart, and more than a hint of LA’s dark masters The Doors…Doris absolutely murders the organ all over this thing, along with some perfectly placed synthesizer pepper – it’s just jammed with hooks and pulsing vintage vibes but in an unassailably clever and accomplished manner. This band is going to be the background party band of the summer I can already tell, this sounds like a saturday night satanic ritual in a sunsetting Austin backyard, everyone dressed to the nines and we’re fuckin goin’ there man. If I didn’t know Melton already I would have lost my shit seeing this out in the wild – expertly played, fantastically recorded (at A = 432 hz, by the way) and just a real tasty party platter of a record here for you – it’s out on Castle Face Records May 19th.” -John Dwyer

The Broken Hearts is a new group formed byWyatt Blair and Louis who started playing together in a band called Feeding People a few years ago. Louis also accompanies Wyatt Blair in his other solo project. Wyatt & Louis went to Tucson to record these few tracks in the studio of (The Resonars) Matt Rendon , who plays on the album, along with Dan Maroti on bass. This band released their first album –“Lost In Little Tokyo” and I am happy to offer you its intergalactic listening. So, you know, Wyatt Blair has always done the (power) pop thing, from his very first album “The Rubinoos”to his second LP much more “Ferris Bueler”. His alternative projects do not fail to explore the many facets of this musical genre which is more a cultural label than a real landmark. With The Broken Hearts, Wyatt Blair and Louis play straddling psychedelic music from the 60’s, 70’s power pop and the 80’s . The Broken Hearts is trying to marry different styles that I do not know have been already confronted in this way.

You don’t use the name ‘Cavemen’ in New Zealand lightly. In polite company, any mention of the infamous Auckland punks registers merely cold stares and hushed voices. The group themselves even claim to be a ‘great band to clear a party.’ The Cavemen formed in high school over a shared love of glue and wild rock ‘n’ roll. Having spent several years drinking and loitering around the various basements, graveyards and parking lots of Auckland, The Cavemen honed their rock ‘n’ roll chops, emerging from their troglodytic existence in around 2012 to deliver NZ back to the stone-age. Now, New Zealand’s most dangerous rock ‘n’ roll band have brought their depraved spectacle to the northern hemisphere. They arrived in London December 2015 and have plans to conquer Europe too. On the decision to move, the band’s singer, Paul Caveman, explains: ‘No bar will have us, no station will play us… we might as well fuck off too the other side of the world.’